Taking Aim
by MorganAW
Summary: Ellen Gibson and her new husband strategically coordinate their bouquet and garter tosses. Lizzie Bennett Diaries universe.


**Licensing Note:** Based on Characters and story lines from _Lizzie Bennet Diaries,_ written and produced by Bernie Su and Hank Green and based off of _Pride and Prejudice_ by Jane Austen. All original content and plot for _Taking Aim_ is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International license by Morgan A. Wyndham. Cross-published on Derbyshire Writer's Guild as MorganA, Archive of Our Own by Morgan AW and by MorganAW.

* * *

"All I am saying my dear, is that you could either blindly throw that bouquet into the crowd and hope for the best, or you could do some good and toss it to my daughter," Mrs. Bennett said, her words slurring slightly. "My Jane will do just fine on her own — did you _see_ her dancing with that rich handsome med student Bing Lee! Won't they just have the cutest children! — But Lizzy!" Mrs. Bennett gestured wildly to the corner where Lizzy sat talking to Charlotte Lu, knocking her hat askew. "Lizzy hasn't danced once this whole evening. She needs all of the romantic magic of a bridal bouquet to save her from herself! Ellen, only you can save my Lizzy from a life of spinsterhood!"

"Well, we wouldn't want that," Ellen said dryly. Mrs. Bennett had cornered her ten minutes ago with her bid to force Lizzy into marital bliss. The older woman was an institution in their neighborhood and Ellen knew there was little she could do to extricate herself from the situation without causing a scene.

"Ellen," Stuart said as he approached, "your great aunt is getting ready to leave, we've got to go say goodbye."

Ellen shot him grateful look and turned back to Mrs. Bennett, "please excuse me."

"Oh, yes, but before you go," the older lady fished around in her massive purse for a minute and finally produced a wrinkled twenty, "you two can use it for the honeymoon. I know you'll do the right thing," she said with an exaggerated wink.

"Thank you, Mrs. Bennett," Ellen said as she took Stuart's hand and walked away. When they were out of earshot she said coyly to her husband, "thank you for the rescue, especially since I know great aunt Agnes went back to the nursing home straight from the ceremony."

"Well, you did look rather trapped. What was all of that about anyway?" Stuart asked with an amused grin as he led her across the room.

"I think she just bribed me to rig the bouquet toss," Ellen laughed uncomfortably.

"Well we wouldn't want to despoil the sanctity of _that_ tradition," he replied sarcastically. Neither Ellen or Stuart were terribly into the whole concept of the elaborate wedding, but they'd made a lot of concessions to their family in the name of tradition.

"Heaven forbid," Ellen played along, then added thoughtfully, "it's a rather shortsighted plan though, I mean, your handsy uncle Frank might catch the garter."

"Or your mouthbreathing cousin Toby ... the tale of a dance with any of the Bennett sisters would make him the king of the junior high locker room for weeks!"

"I have far too much respect for Lizzy Bennett to condemn her to that fate."

"So what you're saying is that I've got to pick my victim then?" He asked, wiggling his eyebrows. Scanning through the crowded reception with purpose he added, "we are somewhat low on eligible bachelors."

"It can't be Bing Lee, Mrs. Bennett is already mentally picking out china for his wedding to Jane."

"Malel tov to Bing! Hm, well, there's your brother..."

"No good, they dated in junior high and Lizzy was bored within a week."

"Your cousin John?"

"Nope, he nearly proposed to Jane in college but the romance fizzled out after Lizzy laughed at his love poetry. I don't think he ever forgave her for that."

"Jeez, is there a guy in your family that hasn't dated a Bennett?"

"Well, there is Toby," she said playfully, he raised his eyebrow at her. "What can I say, it's a small town?"

"Ok then, my side of the aisle it is," he said and resumed scanning the crowd. "Neither of my brothers is single. How about Eddie Bertram, he's a nice guy, sweet, honest, MDiv from Harvard Divinity School."

"Lizzy would eat him alive, her cynicism would shock his world view."

"I think the opposite could be said of his brother Tom, I wouldn't foist him on any girl I wanted to talk to again."

"No, I don't think he's the settling type," Ellen laughed.

"Oh, perfect!" Stewart said, craning his head toward the far wall.

As she was a full foot shorter than her husband she couldn't see his target through the sea of people, "who?"

"Darcy!" He said excitedly.

"Darcy?" She stood on her tiptoes and caught a glimpse of Stewart's college roommate leaning against the wall texting. "I don't think he's said a word to anyone other than the Lees since the receiving line, and even then it was the awkward minimum."

"He doesn't do well in crowds, he's better one on one ... and the man can dance."

"Well, they do both work with digital media, so they're bound to have some common interests."

"His skin is thick enough to withstand Lizzy's wit."

"And he could stand to be knocked down a few pegs by it." Her husband gave her a disapproving look. "What? I know he's your friend and all, but the guy is a bit of a snob, he needs a girl who won't stand for his shit. If he ended up with someone like Caroline Lee they would feed off of each other's snobbery and become even more insufferable than they are."

Stewart gave a mock shudder, "I can't argue with that logic. And he's been far to serious since his parents died, he could use some of her pep."

"Hmm. William Darcy and Lizzie Bennett. I think this could work," she mused.

* * *

She knew that between Lizzy's determination not to catch the bouquet and Lydia's determination to ruthlessly compete with her older sisters in any way she could lobbing the bouquet at Lizzy would give them too much time to react. So when the time came, she sized up the crowd, took aim, and launched it at Lizzy's face — four years of high-school softball with Ellen at the pitcher's mound and Lizzy as catcher prepared them well for this moment. Ellen rushed up to Lizzy and strove for a sincere voice, "I'm so sorry Lizzy, I didn't mean to gun it at you like that! It must just be nerves! Everyone was looking at me and I just ..."

Lizzy's eyes momentarily narrowed, before she set her mouth into that fake smile of hers she used when she was forced to be nice and responded, "it's alright Ellen, it's ... fun."

Ellen turned a conspiratorial glance on her husband as he took her place and the bachelors began to assemble. His task was a bit harder as Darcy lurked in the very back of the pack of men, but pre-law wasn't the only thing he'd studied at Harvard and his years of beer pong paid off as the garter soared in an arc over Toby's grasping hands and landed softly on Darcy's chest. He reflexively caught it then held it away from him like it was radioactive.

Stewart joined her at the head table, where they had front row seats to what Lizzy would later memorialize as the most awkward dance ever. Ellen slapped her husband's arm and whispered, "I thought you said he could dance."

"He can, he just..." Stewart started out confused, then a broad smile spread across his face as he watched the two together, "he likes her! See that chin thing? He only does that when he's nervous. The more emotion he feels, the less he shows, but his chin always gives him away."

"Oh my god you're right! He's dancing with her like a middle schooler with a crush!"

"About damn time! He hasn't really dated since his parents died. And do you know how hard it was getting Darcy to talk to girls in college? He either brushed them off as not worth his time or turned into ... what was it Fitz used to call him? Oh right, an agoraphobic lobster!"

Ellen chuckled, but then caught Lizzy's expression and replied, "well Lizzy's pissed, so I don't know that our planning will come out to much good. Once she makes up her mind she's hard to bring around. Your boy's got no game."

"Give it some time, Darcy grows on you."

* * *

An offhanded comment from Charlotte notified Ellen of Lizzy's videos. As they sat through the first few videos they felt a bit uncomfortable watching their friends as if they were strangers on the internet, but they grew more comfortable with it — especially after Lizzy managed to recap their wedding without ever mentioning the bride & groom. Every Monday and Thursday she and Stewart sat down after they got home from work with a glass of wine to watch the drama unfold. They found the first fifty-nine episodes hilarious in spite of themselves. Between Darcy's vacillation between trying to push her away and accidentally showing his interest and Lizzy's avowed hatred despite her obvious obsession the sexual tension was evident even through Lizzy's skewed lens. It would have been easy for Stuart casually mention Lizzy's videos to Darcy, but they'd decided in the beginning not to interfere any more than they already had. They'd started this mess with their actions at the wedding, it was up to Lizzy and Darcy to sort it out from there.

Ellen and Stewart held their breath and clasped hands through episode sixty and their amusement over the next several videos ebbed until Lizzy showed up in San Francisco. Watching their friends flirt and bond in San Francisco had them so hopeful that they were completely unprepared for disaster. When shit hit the fan between Lydia and George Wickham, Stewart called Darcy and offered him legal advice. He even warned against abusing the terms of service of the Domino app to track Wickham for personal reasons — if Wickham had been smarter, he could have sued Pemberley Digital for such a breech of contract — but in the end Darcy's guilt and and obvious love for Lizzy made him reckless and desperate and he did it anyway. After that level of devotion, Ellen & Stewart were dumbfounded that it took so long for him to make his move.

They cheered, at episodes 97 and 98. They'd had no idea of the life this thing would take back at their own wedding when they'd discussed the unlikely pair's compatibility. They'd gone through the videos with an emotional investment bred out of their own culpability in the drama, and in the end they felt all of the relief of resolution and the triumph of a lucky guess.

* * *

Several years later, an exhausted Lizzy and Darcy made their way to Ellen and Stewart's table in their rounds at their own wedding reception. "You know," Ellen said playfully to Lizzy, "I have it on good authority that _my_ heroic actions saved you from a life of spinsterhood."

Lizzy laughed, "I think William might take some credit for that."

"Maybe, but at my wedding your mother cornered me and payed me $20 toss the bouquet to you."

"I knew it!" Lizzy said, slapping the table, "that curve ball is a lot more dangerous with a bouquet than a softball. Roses have thorns you know!"

"Oh please, we all know the only thorn in your side that evening was Darcy!" Ellen retorted.

Darcy sheepishly looked at the ground. "I'm not sure if it was good luck or bad that I caught the garter then. I _could_ have made a better first impression." Lizzy snorted and rolled her eyes.

"Luck had nothing to do with it!" Stewart piped up, "That was a well-aimed toss. It's not my fault you wasted the opportunity I gave you and acted like an ass."

"Well, as we've established, he didn't want to like me then," Lizzy said with a teasing glare at her husband. Then a thought occured to her and she turned back to Ellen, "so, wait? My mom asked you to throw me at the richest guy you could find and you just did it?" Lizzy asked, "not cool!"

Ellen laughed, "Hey, we put a lot of thought into that decision and his piles of money played no part in it!"

"And I think we placed most of the benefit on Darcy's side. He needed you to tease him out of his shell."

"I couldn't agree more, thank you," Darcy said with a slight nod.

Their conversation was interrupted by Mrs. Bennett shouting across the room: "Oh, _Mrs._ Darcy! _Mrs._ Lee and I need you over here!"

Lizzy rolled her eyes, "I swear she'll never call Jane or I by our first names again. You can _never_ tell her that story! I shudder to think what she'll do to poor Lydia if she knew that stunt had worked!"

"We'll take it to our graves!" Ellen swore with mock solemnity.

"Yoo Hoo! Mrs. Darcy!" Mrs. Bennett tried again, waiving a napkin in the air for emphasis.

"Well, Mrs. Darcy," William said with a tender smile, "we'd better go see what she wants, you know she won't stop until we do."

Lizzy gazed back at him with a goofy grin for a moment then turned back to Ellen and Stewart, "Well, gotta go. Have fun guys! And ..." she gave Ellen a quick hug and whispered, "thank you."

As the happy couple walked away, Stewart leaned in and whispered in her ear, "I wonder who will catch the bouquet?" Ellen dissolved into giggles.

 **Notes:** I hope you enjoyed this quick little story that just popped into my head. The part about the Domino Terms of Service has been bugging me for a while. As a fandom we're all totally fine calling Darcy on his bad behavior in the beginning, but I haven't seen many people up in arms about the fact that as the CEO of a company, Darcy accessed personal information about a customer of his product in order to track him down for personal reasons. Yes, Wickham deserved to be taken down, but I'm a little uncomfortable with the fact that Darcy just casually abused his power like that. Either the Domino end user license agreement gives Pemberley Digital and all employees thereof access to GPS data for your phone (which is terrifying), or Darcy broke the law and endangered his whole company in order to track Wickham down (because he's in love with Lizzy ...)


End file.
